Eric Ward Receives National Recognition

Eric Ward Receives National Recognition

<p class="MsoNormal">&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;Eric Ward, Texas Tech's top returning receiver from 2012, has been named to the
preseason watch list for the Biletnikoff Award, which honors the nation's top
wide receiver. </p>
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Eric Ward, Texas Tech's top returning receiver from 2012, has been named to the
preseason watch list for the Biletnikoff Award, which honors the nation's top
wide receiver.

Ward, a senior from Wichita Falls, earns a spot on the
preseason list for the second consecutive year and continues a streak of six
straight years that a Tech wide receiver has been honored.

The Tallahassee Quarterback Club Foundation, Inc. will
announce the ten Biletnikoff Award semifinalists on November 18, 2013, following
the vote by the Biletnikoff Award National Selection Committee. Likewise, the
three finalists will be declared, following another vote, on November 25, 2013.
The 2013 Biletnikoff Award winner will be presented live on December 12, 2013,
on The Home Depot College Football Awards Show to be broadcast from 7:00 -
9:00pm on ESPN.

Ward is one of 76 wide receivers across the country to be
honored by the Tallahassee Quarterback Club Foundation and one of nine from the
Big 12 Conference.

Tech's top returning receiver in 2012, Ward compiled 1,053
receiving yards on 82 catches along with 12 touchdowns. He averaged 12.8 yards
per catch and 87.8 yards per game. Following the 2012 season, he earned number
All-Big 12 accolades and finished eighth nationally in touchdown receptions.

The name Biletnikoff is synonymous with the term
receiver. Fred Biletnikoff, a member of the pro and college football
halls of fame, was an All-Pro receiver with the Oakland Raiders and an
All-America receiver at Florida State University. He caught 589 passes for 8,974
yards and 76 touchdowns in his 14-year Raiders career from 1965 through 1978.
Fred was the Most Valuable Player of Super Bowl XI. The Tallahassee Quarterback
Club Foundation, Inc. created the Biletnikoff Award in 1994. Seventeen college
receivers have won the award, including Marqise Lee, Randy Moss, Calvin Johnson,
Michael Crabtree, and Larry Fitzgerald. Foundation Selection Committee
Co-Chairman and Founding Trustee Walter Manley, II, noted, "The 2013 Biletnikoff
Award Pre-season Watch List contains one of the most talented fields in the
award's history, consistent with the escalating importance of the passing game
in college football." Selection Committee Co-Chairman Mark Haney, who has helped
comprise pre-season watch lists for over a decade, commented: "Receiver
has become the glamour position in college offenses; the great athletes are
gravitating to receiver which means the ranks of excellent college receivers
continue to grow."